STUDY OF EVOLUTION OF IRANIAN ROCK MUSIC WITH EMPHASIS ON JOHN BLACKING'S THOUGHTS

Abstract

The main subject and consideration of this article are Iranian Rock Music and the problem of Changes. In
this research, the origin of Rock music in the West (USA and GB), and also the social conditions of its entry
to Iran in the 1970s are examined. Rock Music in Iran enters with very different conditions in comparison
with the original context of this style in The United States of America and England and the other countries
of Britain. In addition, due to the Islamic revolution and its consequences in 1979 just a decade after the
arrival of Rock Music in Iran, the life of Popular Music is undergoing and experiencing fundamental
changes. These changes directly affect the life and evolution of Rock Music in Iran. John Blacking's theory
of Musical Changes explains “Musicking” and examining the key elements and necessary conditions for
changes. In terms of Blacking, musical elements in music (genre) are not the only main cause of changes but
changing social organizations and ideas that are not necessarily related to music could cause changes. Based
on this theory, we will try to understand which of these elements and which non-musical elements in Iranian
Rock have caused the most changes. We'll also consider the Change in social organizations in Iran from the
1970s to the 2010s to figure out the main reasons for changes in Iranian Rock Music and its subgenres. On
the other hand, considering the dual existence of Rock Music in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has both
a legal (permitted) and unpermitted (underground) sample, some behavioral problems in both kinds have
been studied. This dual existence has undergone several changes in different decades after the 1979
revolution in Iran; changes that transformed Rock from an unpermitted and relatively unpopular genre in the
1980s and 1990s into a highly influential and popular genre in the following decades. In the following, by
examining and describing the decades of 1970s to 2010s, the social and cultural conditions and atmosphere
prevailing in popular music, especially Rock music in Iran, have been studied.